"extraordinary natural amphitheatre. The site was the home of Iceland's parliament, the Alþing, which was first convened in the year 930. It is a common misconception that Þingvellir is at the juncture between the North American and Eurasian continental plates. However, they are in fact at the juncture of the North American continental plate and a smaller plate (approx. 10,000 km2) called the Hreppar Microplate (Hreppaflekinn). From 1963 to 1967, the island of Surtsey was created on the southwest coast by a volcanic eruption. A geologically young land, Iceland is located on both the Iceland hotspot and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge,"
"primarily of basalt, a low-silica lava associated with effusive volcanism as has occurred also in Hawaii. Iceland, however, has a variety of volcanic types (composite and fissure), many producing more evolved lavas such as rhyolite and andesite. Iceland has hundreds of volcanoes with about 30 active volcanic systems. Surtsey, one of the youngest islands in the world, is part of Iceland. Named after Surtr, it rose above the ocean in a series of volcanic eruptions between 8 November 1963 and 5 June 1968. Only scientists researching the growth of new life are allowed to visit the island. On 21 March"
"Jólnir Jólnir was formerly a volcanic island south of Iceland. It was a former vent of Surtsey, along with Syrtlingur and Surtla. It emerged from the ocean as a result of active plate tectonics between December, 1965 and July, 1966. Oceanic erosion cyclically wore down the new lava as it formed, and the island sank below the surface several times. It was named for Jólnir, a Norse god (usually identified as a second name for Odin). Jólnir's formation is closely linked to that of neighboring volcanic island, Surtsey, which emerged in 1963. Volcanic eruptions occurred in much of the surrounding"
"Surtsey Surtsey (""Surtr's island"" in Icelandic, ) is a volcanic island located in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago off the southern coast of Iceland. At , Surtsey is the southernmost point of Iceland. It was formed in a volcanic eruption which began below sea level, and reached the surface on 14 November 1963. The eruption lasted until 5 June 1967, when the island reached its maximum size of . Since then, wave erosion has caused the island to steadily diminish in size: , its surface area was . The most recent survey (2007) shows the island's maximum elevation at above sea level."
"Surtsey Surtsey (""Surtr's island"" in Icelandic, ) is a volcanic island located in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago off the southern coast of Iceland. At , Surtsey is the southernmost point of Iceland. It was formed in a volcanic eruption which began below sea level, and reached the surface on 14 November 1963. The eruption lasted until 5 June 1967, when the island reached its maximum size of . Since then, wave erosion has caused the island to steadily diminish in size: , its surface area was . The most recent survey (2007) shows the island's maximum elevation at above sea level."
"of fresh magma dwindled, and large clouds of dust were often seen blowing away from the island during this stage of the eruption. The new island was named after the fire jötunn Surtur from Norse mythology (""Surts"" is the genitive case of ""Surtur"", plus -ey, ""island""). Three French journalists representing the magazine ""Paris Match"" notably landed there on 6 December 1963, staying for about 15 minutes before violent explosions encouraged them to leave. The journalists jokingly claimed French sovereignty over the island, but Iceland quickly asserted that the new island belonged to it. By early 1964, though, the continuing eruptions"
"Geology of Iceland The geology of Iceland is unique and of particular interest to geologists. Iceland lies on the divergent boundary between the Eurasian plate and the North American plate. It also lies above a hotspot, the Iceland plume. The plume is believed to have caused the formation of Iceland itself, the island first appearing over the ocean surface about 16 to 18 million years ago. The result is an island characterized by repeated volcanism and geothermal phenomena such as geysers. The eruption of Laki in 1783 caused much devastation and loss of life, leading to a famine that killed"
"one. Basalt columns can be seen in many places, and the sea has eroded the soft rock of the shoreline and scooped out many picturesque coves and grottos, which are among the special features of the islands. There was a submarine eruption southeast of Hellisey in 1896. The next eruption began on 14 November 1963. It lasted about four years – one of the longest in Icelandic history – and gave birth to Surtsey, the 15th island in the group. In the eruption of 1973 that lasted for 155 days, Heimaey grew by about . The Vestmannaeyjar group is about"
"water, but newly formed land was subject to erosion and many small islands washed away. By 1966, Jólnir had broken the surface and a volcanic cone of mafic tephra developed. The volcanic cone reached above sea level, but even this landmass eventually gave way to the eroding ocean waves. After volcanic activity ceased on 8 August 1966, the Atlantic Ocean's waves rapidly eroded the volcanic island. Near the end of September 1966, the island disappeared below the Atlantic Ocean's surface. Jólnir Jólnir was formerly a volcanic island south of Iceland. It was a former vent of Surtsey, along with Syrtlingur"
"is a type of volcanic eruption caused by shallow-water interactions between water and lava, named so after its most famous example, the eruption and formation of the island of Surtsey off the coast of Iceland in 1963. Surtseyan eruptions are the ""wet"" equivalent of ground-based Strombolian eruptions, but because of where they are taking place they are much more explosive. This is because as water is heated by lava, it flashes in steam and expands violently, fragmenting the magma it is in contact with into fine-grained ash. Surtseyan eruptions are the hallmark of shallow-water volcanic oceanic islands, however they are"
"volcano will be covered by grass, as neighbouring Helgafell is. Eldfell is one of the best known volcanic eruptions in the world. Eldfell Eldfell is a volcanic cone just over high on the Icelandic island of Heimaey. It formed in a volcanic eruption, which began without warning on the eastern side of Heimaey, in the Westman Islands, on 23 January 1973. The name means ""Hill of Fire"" in Icelandic. The eruption caused a major crisis for the island and nearly led to its permanent evacuation. Volcanic ash fell over most of the island, destroying around 400 homes, and a lava"
"Eldfell Eldfell is a volcanic cone just over high on the Icelandic island of Heimaey. It formed in a volcanic eruption, which began without warning on the eastern side of Heimaey, in the Westman Islands, on 23 January 1973. The name means ""Hill of Fire"" in Icelandic. The eruption caused a major crisis for the island and nearly led to its permanent evacuation. Volcanic ash fell over most of the island, destroying around 400 homes, and a lava flow threatened to close off the harbour, the island's main income source via its fishing fleet. An operation was mounted to cool"
"The new island was named after ""Surtr"", a fire ""jötunn"" or giant from Norse mythology. It was intensively studied by volcanologists during its eruption, and afterwards by botanists and other biologists as life forms gradually colonised the originally barren island. The undersea vents that produced Surtsey are part of the ""Vestmannaeyjar"" submarine volcanic system, part of the fissure of the sea floor called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Vestmannaeyjar also produced the famous eruption of ""Eldfell"" on the island of Heimaey in 1973. The eruption that created Surtsey also created a few other small islands along this volcanic chain, such as ""Jólnir"""
"on the island. Another continuing study has been following the biocolonization of Surtsey, Iceland, a new volcanic island that erupted offshore between 1963 and 1967. An earlier event, the Toba eruption in Sumatra about 73,000 years ago, covered some parts of India with of ash, and must have coated the Nicobar Islands and Andaman Islands, much nearer in the ash fallout cone, with life-smothering layers, forcing the restart of their biodiversity. However, not all founder effect studies are initiated after a natural disaster; some scientists study the reinstatement of a species that became locally extinct. Hajji and others, and Hundertmark"
"to the location of the plume beneath the thick Greenland craton for ~ 15 Myr after continental breakup, and the later entrenchment of the plume material into the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge following its formation. Iceland hotspot The Iceland hotspot is a hotspot which is partly responsible for the high volcanic activity which has formed the island of Iceland. Iceland is one of the most active volcanic regions in the world, with eruptions occurring on average roughly every three years (in the 20th century there were 39 volcanic eruptions on and around Iceland). About a third of the basaltic lavas erupted"
"as under many of the glaciers of Iceland, there are several volcanoes. Eruptions from these volcanoes have led to the development of large pockets of water beneath the ice, which may burst the weakened ice and cause a jökulhlaup (glacial lake outburst flood). During the last ice age, numerous volcanic eruptions occurred under Vatnajökull, creating many subglacial eruptions. In more modern times, the volcanoes continue to erupt beneath the glaciers, resulting in many documented floods. One jökulhlaup in 1934 caused the release of of water over the course of several days. The volcanic lake Grímsvötn was the source of a"
"than those that had built Surtsey, with the average rate of emission of volcanic materials being about a tenth of the rate at the main vent. Activity was short-lived, continuing until the beginning of October 1965, by which time the islet had an area of . Once the eruptions had ceased, wave erosion rapidly wore the island away, and it disappeared beneath the waves on 24 October. During December 1965, more submarine activity occurred southwest of Surtsey, and another island was formed. It was named Jólnir, and over the following eight months it appeared and disappeared several times, as wave"
"formed in 1963 after a volcanic eruption from beneath the sea. Surtsey is off the South coast of Iceland and is being monitored to observe primary succession in progress. About thirty species of plant had become established by 2008 and more species continue to arrive, at a typical rate of roughly 2–5 new species per year. Another example takes place after a glacier in Signy Island, South OrkneyIslands, Maritime Antarctic. Glacier retreat is becoming more normal with the warming climate, and lichens and mosses are the first colonizers. The study, conducted by Favero-Longo et al. found that lichen species diversity"
"Surtsey Island, Iceland, for example, was created between November 1963 and June 1967. The island has since partially eroded, but it is expected to last another 100 years. Some earthquakes can create sudden variations of relative ground level and change the coastline dramatically. Structurally controlled coasts include the San Andreas fault zone in California and the seismic Mediterranean belt (from Gibraltar to Greece). The Bay of Pozzuoli, in Pozzuoli, Italy experienced hundreds of tremors between August 1982 and December 1984. The tremors, which reached a peak on October 4, 1983, damaged 8,000 buildings in the city center and raised the"
"Opal, Obsidian, Rock crystal and Iceland spar. Volcano House offers guidance and information throughout the exhibit. The interior design of the exhibition is meant to look like it's from 1973 which is the year when the volcanic eruption in Heimaey in the Westman Islands occurred. The Volcano House cinema presents two documentaries covering two of the most powerful volcanic eruptions that have occurred in Iceland over the last 40 years - the 1973 eruption in Heimaey on the Westman Islands, and the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in South Iceland. The documentaries are exclusively made for Volcano House and can not"
"by Denmark. Iceland's history has also been marked by a number of natural disasters. Iceland is a relatively young country in the geological sense, being formed about 20 million years ago by a series of volcanic eruptions in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, but it is still growing from fresh volcanic eruptions. The oldest stone specimens found in Iceland date back to ca. 16 million years ago. In geological terms, Iceland is a young island. It started to form in the Miocene era about 20 million years ago from a series of volcanic eruptions on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where it lies between"
"over the Iceland hotspot, which greatly enhances the volcanic activity. It is estimated that a third of all the basaltic lava erupted in the world in recorded history has been produced by Icelandic eruptions. The Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands) archipelago lies off the south coast of Iceland, and consists of several small islands, all formed by eruptions in the Holocene epoch. Heimaey, the largest island in the group and the only inhabited one, also contains some material from the Pleistocene era. The most prominent feature on Heimaey before 1973 was Helgafell, a 200 meters (650 ft) high volcanic cone formed in"
"which runs right through it. This location means that the island is highly geologically active with earthquakes and many volcanoes, notably Hekla, Eldgjá, Herðubreið and Eldfell. Eyjafjallajökull (1,666 m) erupted in 2010, disrupting European air traffic. Iceland has many geysers, including Geysir, from which the English word ""geyser"" is derived. With the widespread availability of geothermal power, and the harnessing of many rivers and waterfalls for hydroelectricity, most residents have access to inexpensive hot water, heating and electricity. The island is composed primarily of basalt, a low-silica lava associated with effusive volcanism as has occurred also in Hawaii. Iceland, however,"
"Thrihnukagigur Þríhnúkagígur (, anglicized as Thrihnukagigur, literally translated as ""Three Peaks Crater"") is a dormant volcano near Reykjavík, Iceland. Covering a area and a depth of , it has not erupted in the past 4000 years. It was discovered in 1974 by cave explorer Árni B Stefánsson, and opened for tourism in 2012. It is the only volcano in the world where visitors can take an elevator and safely descend into the magma chamber. The magma that would normally fill the chamber and become sealed is believed to have drained away, to the bewilderment of most scientists, revealing the rift"
"and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, volcanism, which could have been generated by the Iceland hotspot, connected the Eurasian and North American continents and formed a land bridge between the continents while they spread apart; this feature is known as the Greenland Scotland Transverse Ridge, and it know lies below sea level. Approximately 36 mya, the Iceland hotspot was fully in contact with the oceanic crust and possibly fed segments of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which continued to form the oldest rocks located directly to the east and west of modern-day Iceland. The oldest subaerial rocks in modern-day Iceland are from 16.5 mya."
"had built the island to such a size that sea water could no longer easily reach the vents, and the volcanic activity became much less explosive. Instead, lava fountains and flows became the main form of activity. These resulted in a hard cap of extremely erosion-resistant rock being laid down on top of much of the loose volcanic pile, which prevented the island from being washed away rapidly. Effusive eruptions continued until 1965, by which time the island had a surface area of . On 28 December 1963, submarine activity to the northeast of Surtsey caused the formation of a"
"the yield was best. The use of snares was discontinued in 1966. The 2011 Icelandic film ""Stormland"" includes Drangey. Drangey Drangey or Drang Isle is an island in the Skagafjörður fjord in northern Iceland. It is the remnant of a 700,000‑year‑old volcano, mostly made of volcanic palagonite tuff, forming a massive rock fortress. The island was first mentioned in the Icelandic classic ""Grettis saga"" as being the refuge of the outlaw Grettir, who spent his last years there with his brother Illugi and his slave Glaumur. He fled there with his two companions when enemies were seeking his life because"
"an eruption about 5,000 years ago. The Vestmannaeyjar archipelago was settled in about 874 AD, originally by escaped Irish slaves belonging to Norse settlers on the mainland. These settlers gave the islands their name, Ireland being west of mainland Scandinavia. Although plagued by poor water supplies and piracy during much of its history, Heimaey became the most important centre of the Icelandic fishing industry, having one of the few good harbours on the southern side of the country, and being situated in very rich fishing grounds. At about 20:00 on 21 January 1973, a series of small tremors began to"
"Iceland hotspot The Iceland hotspot is a hotspot which is partly responsible for the high volcanic activity which has formed the island of Iceland. Iceland is one of the most active volcanic regions in the world, with eruptions occurring on average roughly every three years (in the 20th century there were 39 volcanic eruptions on and around Iceland). About a third of the basaltic lavas erupted in recorded history have been produced by Icelandic eruptions. Notable eruptions have included that of Eldgjá, a fissure of Katla, in 934 (the world's largest basaltic eruption ever witnessed), Laki in 1783 (the world's"
"the Katla volcano in Mýrdalsjökull, gathered so much sand and gravel that it was now not at the shore but surrounded by the mainland and the fjord was filled. After the eruption of Katla in 1918, a tongue of land, Kötlutangi, led out into the sea so far that it was regarded as the southernmost point of Iceland. Meanwhile, however, the sea eroded it to the point that this title again belongs to the peninsula of Dyrhólaey. By 1936 there was a farm of the same name on the mountain. After the outbreaks of Katla in 1660 or 1721 it"
"a republic, and Icelandic society has undergone a rapid modernisation process in the post-independence era. Iceland is a geologically young land mass, having formed an estimated 20 million years ago due to volcanic eruptions on the Mid-Atlantic ridge. One of the last larger islands to remain uninhabited, the first human settlement date is generally accepted to be 874 AD, although there is some evidence to suggest human activity prior to the Norse arrival. The first Viking to sight Iceland was Gardar Svavarsson, who went off course due to harsh conditions when sailing from Norway to the Faroe Islands. His reports"
"Volcanology of Iceland The volcanoes of Iceland include a high concentration of active ones due to Iceland's location on the mid-Atlantic Ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary, and its location over a hot spot. The island has 30 active volcanic systems, of which 13 have erupted since the settlement of Iceland in AD 874. Of these 30 active volcanic systems, the most active/volatile is Grímsvötn. Over the past 500 years, Iceland's volcanoes have erupted a third of the total global lava output. The most fatal volcanic eruption of Iceland's history was the so-called Skaftáreldar (fires of Skaftá) in 1783-84. The"
"ridge high on the sea floor. This seamount was named Surtla, but never reached sea level. Eruptions at Surtla ended on 6 January 1964, and it has since been eroded from its minimum depth of below sea level. In 1965, the activity on the main island diminished, but at the end of May that year an eruption began at a vent off the northern shore. By 28 May, an island had appeared, and was named Syrtlingur (Little Surtsey). The new island was washed away during early June, but reappeared on 14 June. Eruptions at Syrtlingur were much smaller in scale"